Remember last spring?

This picture was taken last April, when I gave up trying to use this door, after it kept getting swamped by falling snow from the mudroom roof.

Well, it's only February 9

This year, I didn't even try to use this door. As you can see, I have a path shoveled out to the backdoor. As you may also be able to see, we're not anywhere near through with winter, and the snow is already so far piled up that now when the snow falls off the roof, it falls onto that huge pile and then slides down into the path.

The other day, I had to shovel the path in the morning before I went to work. It was about 5:30 and still dark out, so I put on the mudroom light so it would throw a little light out there. But it didn't, because the snow is now so high that it blocks the windows.

We've got at least another month of snow, maybe two.

I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile ...

The dogs are coping pretty well. They're not getting a lot of exercise because the paths are too often impassible, but they're hounds and hibernation is just fine with them. And they enjoy clearing out their own yard in the back. What I do is toss a cup of kibble out there and they paw through the snow to find it. In the process, they trample the yard down enough that they have a nice spot for themselves later. Each day, I toss the kibble into the adjoining virgin snow and the area gets larger, until they've got a pretty decent size place trampled out.

Then, of course, it snows again, but they don't mind having to start over.